Skip to main content

tv   Democracy Now  LINKTV  March 3, 2014 8:00am-9:01am PST

8:00 am
03/03/14 03/03/14 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! we are on the brink of disaster. there was no reason for the russian federation to invade ukraine. the entire global the unitywill support
8:01 am
of ukraine. confrontationest between moscow and the west since the cold war, russian troops have seized the crimean section of ukraine a week after the ouster of ukraine's pro-russian prime minister. but more of ukraine falter russian forces? we will speak with the a professor timothy snyder and former cia analyst ray mcgovern. and then xl dissent. >> hundreds of young people came here from all over the country, 42 states committed show president obama that keystone xl is not ok and not in our national interest. >> nearly 400 students and other young people are arrested after they chained themselves to the gates of the white house, calling on president obama to reject the keystone xl tar sands pipeline. a love that in more coming up. -- all of that and more coming out.
8:02 am
this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. russian troops have seized part of ukraine's crimean peninsula in what has become moscow's biggest confrontation with the west since the cold war. the troops took action after russia's parliament the president vladimir putin a green light to protect russian interest following the ouster of ukraine's pro-russian prime minister viktor yanukovich. earlier today, russian troops seized the ukraine coast guard .ase in the crimean city on sunday, the new head of ukraine's navy affected to russia. the united states and other nations say they're suspending preparations for this year's g8 summit in sochi, russia. john kerry said the u.s. could impose sanctions to condemn putin's actions. >> russia will lose, the russian people will lose. you will lose all of the glow that came out of the olympics.
8:03 am
a sochit going to have g-8. you may not even remain in the g8 if this continues. he may find himself with asset freezes on russian business, american business may pull back. there may be of further tumble money. >> moscow's main stock index tumbled 9%. we will have more on ukraine after the headlines. nearly 400 opponents of the keystone xl oil pipeline were arrested sunday in front of the white house, marking what could be the largest youth sit in on the environment in a generation. >> we are here to march to the white house and form one of the largest accessible disobedience for climate ever. hundreds of young people all came here from all over the country, 42 states, to show president obama the keystone xl is not ok and not in our national interest. than 80nts for more
8:04 am
colleges rallied at georgetown university and then marched to the white house were some unfurled a black tarp and laid on the sidewalk to create a human oil spill. hundreds locked themselves to the white house fence before being arrested. president obama is expected to make a decision on whether to approve the keystone xl pipeline in the coming months. more on the protest and the pipeline later in the broadcast. the venezuelan president is facing a new round of protests against his government. despite the carnival holiday, thousands of opposition protesters marched and then clashed with police sunday in the capital caracas. at least 70 people have died in bed as well as worst unrest for a decade. -- at least 17 people have died in venezuela. blast were killed by bomb saturday including children who are watching a soccer game. at least 51 more died when
8:05 am
gunmen attacked a nearby village in nigeria. in china, group of people armed with knives attacked a crowded railway station in the onthwestern city of kunming saturday, killing at least 29 people and wounding 143. the government blamed the attack on muslim leader separatist and police have begun rounding up uighers for questioning. a radio station owner in afghanistan who airs ads paid for by the u.s. special forces says those same forces raided his station, beat him, and threatened to kill him on thursday before releasing him the next day without charge. he told "the new york times" that the u.s. troops, who hooded him and damaged his equipment, appeared to be unaware his station is largely supported by pro-government ads paid for by which have -- ads earned him death threats from the taliban. u.s. forces of the operation was afghan-lead, but afghan officials said it are unaware of
8:06 am
it and local police said he did not hear about the rate until it was underway. theident karzai criticized u.s.-led occupation in an interview with "the washington post." he said the war was waged to serve u.s. interests and that "afghans died in a war that's not hours." despite pressure from obama, karzai has so far refused to sign a deal to keep u.s. troops in afghanistan beyond this year. a former guantanamo prisoner who spent three years in u.s. custody without charge or trial has been ordered to remain in detention in britain following his arrest on terrorism charges related to the conflict in syria. moazzam begg appeared in the london court saturday while hundreds of supporters rallied in his home city of birmingham. begg, who heads the prisoner advocacy group cage, says he has been harassed by authorities for investing -- investigating
8:07 am
british complicity in torture. you can go to democracynow.org to see our interview with moazzam begg over the years. in pakistan, the latest attack on a polio vaccination team killed at least 13 people on saturday in northwest pakistan. the provincial governor condemned the killings. martyrs had not come here to attack anyone's house or to carry out any such activity. they had come here to administer life-saving drugs to our children to prevent this disability polio among our people. but they have been brutally killed, which is not the tradition of this region. >> no one claimed responsibility for the attack, but the taliban has previously targeted health workers after it was revealed the cia used a fake vaccination program to help locate osama bin laden. hours after the attack, the pakistani taliban and a month-long cease-fire. talks between the taliban and the government broke down last month.
8:08 am
osama bin laden's son-in-law goes on trial today here in new york city. is chargedu ghaith with urging the killing of americans after the september 11 attacks. he is the highest-ranking member of al qaeda to stand trial in the united states following the 9/11 attacks. a member of the cuban five is back in cuba after more than 15 years in prison in the united states. hisas deported friday after release from prison. he spoke after arriving home. >> the intense emotions i have felt in the last day and a half since setting foot on this dear lan are indescribable. not even the most creative of imaginations could have prepared me for what i have been living since stepping off the stairs of the airplane that brought me to the homeland. >> the cuban five were arrested in 1998 and later convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. they say there were not spying on the united states, but trying
8:09 am
to monitor violent right-wing cuban exile groups. fernando gonzalez is the second member to be freed will stop three others remain in prison. for our extended interview with the first to be freed, who is now in cuba, you can go to democracynow.org. in florida, african-american woman sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing what she says was a warning shot into a wall to her abusive husband is now facing triple her original sentence. a reset alexander's case generated national outrage and comparisons to george zimmerman, who was acquitted for shooting trayvon martin dead. appeals court ordered a new trial over faulty jury instructions, florida prosecutors say they will now try to put her behind bars for 60 years at her july trial, which would essentially amount to a life sentence for the 33-year-old mother of three. federal regulators have taken a
8:10 am
step toward blocking what would be north america's largest open pit mine. the environmental protection agency says it is initiating a process to protect alaska's bristol bay from the potentially irreversible impacts of the pebble gold and copper mine. in january, an epa report, project could threaten the salmon population and the livelihoods of alaska natives. idaho governor cl butch otter has signed a so-called ag gag law, making idaho the seventh state to criminalize the act of filming without permission in farming facilities. the ban comes after an undercover activist in idaho fieldworkers stomping on cows, beating, dragging, and even sexually abusing them at a dairy farm. the los angeles city council has voted unanimously to advance a ban on fracking in the city. the motion passed on friday instructs the city's attorney to
8:11 am
draft new rules that will impose a moratorium on fracking intel environment protections are in place. los angeles would be the first oil-producing city in california to impose a ban on fracking. the powerful pro-israel group aipac is holding its annual conference in washington, d.c. protesters led by codepink added outside the convention hall sunday to protest israel's treatment of palestinians and call for peace and diplomacy with iran. this is codepink's medea benjamin. >> for the american people. the american people want diplomacy to work. the american people don't want war. the american people look at iraq and say, oh! aipac was one of those groups that pushed us into that war. how did that war turnout? >> president obama is due to
8:12 am
meet with benjamin netanyahu at the white house today. the meeting comes as israel faces condemnation over the killing of palestinians in the occupied territories. over the weekend, israeli troops shot and killed a palestinian woman in the gaza strip. the military says it fired on a group of people who did not heed calls to retrieve from the border. relatives said the -- the victim was mentally ill. last week, amnesty international accused is really forces of killing dozens of civilians in possible war crimes in the west bank. on the same day, troops shot and killed a man who had barricaded himself in his west bank home. in south africa, only that an paralytic runner oscar pistorius has gone on trial for the murder of his girlfriend reeva steenkamp last valentine's day. the story is pleaded not guilty earlier today at his trial, which is being broadcast on its own tv channel. he says he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder. academy annual
8:13 am
awards were presented sunday night in los angeles. "12 years a slave" won for best picture, marking the first time the top honor has gone to a film by black director -- steve mcqueen. lupita nyong'o, who plays the film, whenman in the best supporting actress, becoming the first kenyan to win an oscar. so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else's. so i want to salute the spirit of patsy for her guidance and, solomon, thank you for telling the story and your own. when i look down at this golden statue, mayor remind me -- mayor remind me, that no matter what where you're from, your dreams are valid. >> matthew mcconaughey won for best actor and jared leto for
8:14 am
best supporting actor for the roles in "dallas buyers club." "20 feet from stardom" about backup dancers won for best documentary. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. russia is found to keep its troops in the ukrainian region of crimea in what has become moscow's biggest confrontation with the west since the cold war. russian troops seized part of the crimea peninsula without firing a shot as the parliament and moscow gay president vladimir putin a green light saturday to proceed to protect russian interests following the ouster of ukraine's pro-russian prime minister the two yanukovich. crimea houses a major russian naval base and is the only ukrainian region that has an ethnic russian majority. it was a russian territory until it was transferred to ukraine in 1954 during the soviet europe.
8:15 am
ukraine's new prime minister yatseniuk said putin had effectively declared war on his country. is not the threat, this is actually the declaration of war on my country. and we urge president putin to and tock his military stick to the international obligation and bilateral agreements that were signed between ukraine and russia. >> earlier today, russian troops seized a ukraine coast guard base in the crimean city of balaklava. on sunday, the new head of ukraine's debuted affected russia. concern is growing that more eastern ukraine could soon fall to russians. putin sent troops into crimea in
8:16 am
defiance of president obama. >> we are not deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the russian federation inside of ukraine. russia has a historic relation with ukraine. but any violation of ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply disable icing, which is -- destabilizing, which is not in the interest of ukraine, russia, or europe. it would represent a profound interference in matters that must be determined by the ukrainian people will stop it would be a clear violation of russia's commitment to respect the independence and sovereignty, and borders of ukraine and of international laws. >> the obama administration is still debating on how to respond to the russian troop movement. in an initial step, the united states and others g-7 nations said there are suspending preparations for this year's g8 summit in russia due to take
8:17 am
place in sochi in june. john kerry said the u.s. is considering placing sanctions on russia and kicking russia out of the g-8. ukraine's envoy to the united nations said kiev they ask for international military support of russia's military actions expands. to talk more about the crisis in ukraine, we're joined by two guests. timothy snyder is back with us, professor of history at yell university. author of, "bloodlands: europe between hitler and stalin." piece for "the new york review propanda." austria.ning us from joining us from washington, d.c. its rate mcgovern, former senior cia analyst. his later duties included preparing the president's daily brief and chairing national intelligence. he is now on the steering a veteran -- steering group of veteran's intelligence
8:18 am
professionals for sanity. his recent article is called, "ukraine: one 'regime change' too many?" let's start with professor snyder. can you explain what has happened until this point." >> revolution in counterrevolution, ukraine is governed by probably the most financially corrupt regime in the history of the world, which by the end of its rule was not only physically depressing, but finally killing his citizens as they attempted to exert pressure by way of exercising their right to speech and assembly. this president left after an agreement according to which presidential elections were going to be called, leading to a change of power or power shifted in ukraine from the streets to the parliament where it resides now. the constitution in ukraine has been changed so ukraine has now become instead of a super presidential authoritarian regime of part of entry democracy and election seven called for this coming may. what happened immediately after that was entirely unprovoked
8:19 am
russian military intervention on part of ukrainian territory. the goal seems to be twofold. first, defensive from putin's point of view to prevent the sort of thing from happening again in russia. if you can create the image of chaos in ukraine -- and they do have a way of creating such images ashley need to make russians believe what is happening in you train -- ukraine is unattractive. the long-term goal is to show what european civilization means. putin and advisors and russian press amended clear -- have made a clear it is part of decadent european civilization. by decadence they meet rejection of christianity, advocacy of the right of ethnic minorities. they make this clear this is what they oppose. of course, these issues are not central to ukrainians themselves. campaigningans are campin
8:20 am
for is the rule of law. forceswhat about moving into crimea? how significant is this? well, it is probably the worst thing that is happening europe since the yugoslav wars. it is a desperately dangerous thing to do. for one thing, it is a violation of all conceivable international law and standards. including the one which russia has -- it is a violation of the 1994 agreement between ukraine, russia, u.s., the nine a kingdom according to which -- the united kingdom, it according to which they gave up its nuclear weapons, sealed up silos, and
8:21 am
planted daisies on top of them. what this president shows among other things is if you give up your nuclear weapons, you're inviting of invasion from neighboring powers. that is operable lesson. -- this is a horrible lesson. the aggression between one very large military power is engaging or provoking from another very large state. what has already happened is quite bad. for no reason whatsoever, one state is being asked to concede part of its territory. russia, the aggressor, is asserting for itself the right to invade the country to protect the ill-defined rights of very flexibly defined people -- who by the way are not asking for intervention. on the contrary, there's a long petition by russians in which they explain they do not need any external interference, especially armed interference, to protect their rights. the governors of the eastern provinces are also making this
8:22 am
point very clearly. what we have now is one of the worst things that is happened and it threatens to get very, very, very much worse. >> ray mcgovern, your take on what is happening in ukraine right now and russia moving into the crimean peninsula? talk about your background with russia and the soviet union. >> [inaudible] we're going to work under audio. when we come back from break. we're speaking to professor timothy snyder and ray mcgovern. ray mcgovern is former senior cia analyst whose duties included cutting the president ash prepping presidents daily brief for george h.w. you wish.
8:23 am
we will be back in a moment.
8:24 am
>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we continue our discussion about ukraine with ray mcgovern, whose duties included preparing the president's daily brief and chairing the national intelligence estimates. he was an analyst of russian foreign-policy in the first decade of his 27 year career with the cia. ray mcgovern, your assessment of what is happening now andthe cor background. >> thank you. i think professor snyder was quite right in talking about the ze and surrounding what is going on in ukraine. i can speak to how the russians
8:25 am
look at the ukraine and how incredibly sensitive they are to what they perceive as threats to its frontier, to its new frontier, particularly, to republics that were once a part of the soviet union back in the days when i started analyzing the ussr. special,s something not only historically and economically, politically, but for all kinds of strategic reasons. now, the question is, who is provoking this unrest? you have to stick close to the evidence. in this case, we have incredible intercepteded on telephone conversations. who is speaking? the assistant secretary for european affairs, victoria nuland, talking to our ambassador in kiev and what she is saying is, and i'll just read "yats, he's the
8:26 am
guy. he's got the economic experience, governor angus prince, the guy you know. i guess as opposed to a guy you don't know." ? guess what? a few weeks after that,yats has become the interim prime minister of the ukraine. if i were a russian, i would look at that and say, in, who is responsible for a lot of this? i'm not saying the national endowment for democracy is completely responsible, but they are a catalyst. when you have 65 -- count them, 65 projects in the ukraine funded with $100 million, if i were a russian know it's a, looks like they're trying to do with ukraine what they did to the rest of eastern europe with the u.s. pledged not to do, and pluck these countries off one by one and have them join that only european community, but nato. the russians aren't going to stand for that. the people organizing obama might have warned him that you
8:27 am
go and bridge too far when he threatened the strategic interest the russians consider so sensitive as ukraine. >> timothy snyder, your response? on whatss a lot depends you think russia's strategic interest are. i was a russia's strategic interests would involve trade with ukraine, stability in ukraine. these are not things that are going to be improved by the military occupation of all or part of the country. i would draw attention to the basic fact that ukraine and russia are different countries. americans and canadians have a lot in common. a lot of americans and mexicans have a lot in common. that doesn't mean we start speaking about frontiers zones. we know it borders are. we don't speak about the interests of english speaking people in canada were spanish-speaking people in a
8:28 am
sicko, then claim we have a right to invade or vice versa. ukraine is a sovereign state. russia's direct military interest in ukraine is its base in crimea, which is secured by international treaty until 2042. one of the provisions of that treaty is russian forces are not to move beyond the borders of that phase, which they have now done. that is one more agreement they violated. in terms of the question who is provoking white, i'm happy to hear that telephone call cited. imagine just how much evidence the russians have of what the u.s. is doing in ukraine, given that access to that telephone call. that was the best bit they could come up with. in the context of the time, with a telephone conversation showed, was the americans were, a, not up to date about what was happening ukraine, and, b, unable to influence events happening in ukraine. at that time, what was being discussed in that phone call was an offer by the then president
8:29 am
.f ukraine which they refused the americans were telling them to accept it, and they refused it. if you just read the transcript of that phone call, it is clear what was happening. remember, that is the best thing the russians could come up with to show the americans were behind the scenes. what provoked this? russian foreign-policy doctrine. russia wanted ukraine to become a member of something called the eurasian union, which is a dictatorship. in order for ukraine to become a member, ukraine had to become a military regime like russia. russian financial aid proceeded and seems likely to have been the cause -- it is in the billions. it was made contingent upon ukrainians authorities of pressing and killing their own citizens. if that were not the case, if there were huge russian money backing the killing of ukrainian
8:30 am
citizens, there would not been a revolution in ukraine. russia was still have a leader it liked in ukraine. one of the reasons he russia is invading ukraine now is to make sure we forget all about that. if russia had not overreached in ukraine, it would not approve of the revolution which it is so unhappy about now. >> ray mcgovern, your response? a professor snyder mentioned canada and mexico. look this over and consider putin or lavrov from the foreign minister, handing out chocolate chip cookies to violent demonstrators in mexico city or ottawa or toronto. is sacred totier us. we even used have something called the monroe doctrine. mirror image that to how russia looks at things and how they in atrack -- tricked when position of weakness in 1990,
8:31 am
1991, gorbachev said, all right, all right, east germany, we will pull out our troops and you can have a united germany if that is what you really want. there.'s stop let's not get the warsaw pact countries into nato. of course that is precisely what we did. you don't have to be paranoid to be a russian and say, here's his conversation -- i would say it is very telling conversation. it goes on to say, this fellow yats yatseniuk,, he knows about economics. he knows he has got to do suicide politically because he has to cut back on things, no more food stamps equivalent, and the kind of thing, so they can meet the conditions of the imf and western europe. it is not so hazy. it is a choice between the ec and western europe and the western ukraine and the soviet union. and in this case, the soviet union has all the cards. some of you should say to the president, look, mr. president,
8:32 am
however much we would like to have regime change according to our own wishes, there are strategic realities that we have to remind you of, mr. president. one of them is, putin and no soviet leader is going to abide nato infringing on ukraine. >> i want to go to part of the recording of intercepted phone conversation between u.s. ambassador to ukraine jeffreypyatt and victoria nuland, the top u.s. diplomat for europe.
8:33 am
>> that is victoria nuland speaking to the us ambassador to ukraine. that conversation, to the shock of many, ended up on youtube, not clear who hacked the phone conversation. professor snyder connie said the conversation showed how out-of-control u.s. was, but here she is talking about who should be the next leader and that is exactly who ended up being the next leader, yatseniuk
8:34 am
[captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> yes, the reason he became the prime minister of ukraine, he received the geordie a boat. normallyow things firml work. the other thing that she said in the phone conversation just cited, did not happen. he will not be at home during this political homework. he will be the most important person in the country. on the other things she described as should happen, are not happening, either. if this is our piece of evidence the americans control everything, it is a very, very thin piece of evidence. remember, who is ever collecting that evidence -- i don't think we doubt who that is -- has much more than that and this is the very testing that could find.
8:35 am
i think it's important that we americans are we on the american left don't reduce everything to being the americans did this or the americans did that. ukrainians are actual people, actual country. they believe what we did, by the way, was far too little. ukrainians had about both the americans and the europeans was that we were way too hands-off. they complained we were -- they complained we were far too close to the russians and in effect we were helping the russians them. i'm afraid that is much closer to the reality. i was struck -- we just heard talk about the soviet union. the soviet union has not existed for quarter century. in december 1991, the authorities became russia excepted the borders with ukraine. this has happened before.
8:36 am
you don't 25 years later talk about how you might want the borders to be a little bit different. you have to respect the agreements they have actually made. the soviet union doesn't exist anymore. whether it seems -- it is a problem whether it is there are problem whether it is here. international law is clear. itre is no in the world justifies invading a country. >> ray mcgovern? as toppreciate the lesson how the soviet union doesn't exist anymore. since theterests ninth century, that is were so this goes back a long way. fast forward to today. who is jeffrey pyatt? he is one of these state department high officials who does what he is told, presents
8:37 am
himself as a ca officer. who is he? he was in vienna. what was he doing? to betrating the election head of the iaea, international atomic energy agency. because they did not like the guy they try to get rid of islier, that they knew -- it clear from cables, from vienna, from pyatt released by wikileaks, that pyatt was going insane amano is so happy for our support in making him head of the iaea and now he has asked us for a little more money because he would like to fix up his office. it is so apparent what state department types are now doing and covert action style, political action sort of thing, to create the right results. the iaea is a big deal, ok?
8:38 am
pyatt played a crucial role in that and now houston the bidding of likes the victoria nuland am who i would describe as a prima donna assistant secretary of state to european affairs who is doing no one any good, cookies or not. >> i want to turn to comments made by russian ambassador to the united nations over the weekend. >> the best way to resolve the crisis is to look artist every 21st agreement and try to do things the way they were described there. they need to have a constitutional dialogue and process of forming a new constitution. they need to refrain from conducting his the presidential election, which most likely is going to create more friction within the country. they need to stop trying to
8:39 am
intimidate other regions and other political forces. they need to show not just -- to be clear, but to show an actual policies that this is about national reconciliation, national unity, territorial integrity of ukraine. they need to work toward establishing a common ground there. unfortunately, so far, we don't see that in practice. we're some decorations to that, but we don't see them practice. >> professor snyder, your response? well, briefly on what was just said, this business that russia started in the ninth century for strikes me as very strange. kiev andnth century, bruce was in kiev. certainly things that happen in the ninth century are not a reason why russian soldiers have
8:40 am
to be bearing weapons in ukraine today. concern about the control of atomic energy, what you be more concerned about the control of nuclear weapons. in 1994, ukraine voluntarily give up its nuclear weapons in exchange russia promised not to intervene on ukrainian territory. .his has been violated it is a very bad precedent. in terms of what the russian diplomat said, first of all, i think it is for us rather than to -- by us, mean all of us observers. the russians have intervened with military force which makes them questionable a stability. it is an extraordinary mission. as far as what is happening in ukraine, it has been restored to parliamentary democracy. presidential elections are
8:41 am
scheduled. the only thing that will stop them from happening is the russian military intervention. in terms of bringing everyone together, in eastern ukrainian cities, people are speaking ukrainian as a gesture to the west. the governors of the eastern provinces are speaking about the necessity of keeping the country together. this was a revolution. this is unusual. it will all be passed over now because i were talking about his intervention. this revolution was started by a muslim civil society activists. it has ended with a jew as prime investor of the country. along the way, ukrainians, also russians, armenians, poles others have taken a risk and died. this was a popular revolution which included all kinds of people from all over the country , most of them ordinary people. it has resulted in the possibility of pushing ukraine forward toward what ukrainians
8:42 am
themselves actually want, which is a rule of law society. it seems rather than being distracted by or slightly self assess notions of how we control or don't control everything, we should pay more attention to the actual clinical progress that has been made. and then defend the very standard and normal standards of international law. that part isn't very complicated. >> ray mcgovern? >> a couple of things. it depends more on who seizes control of these uprisings. if you look at bahrain and syria, even egypt to an extent, these were initially popular uprisings. the question is, who took them over? whose bird them? -- who spurred them? it is clear what happened in ukraine. it used to be the cia doing these things. i know that for a fact. now it is the national endowment for democracy, $100 million.
8:43 am
again, you don't have to be paranoid russian to suggest they're really trying to do in ukraine what they've done the rest of eastern europe and elsewhere. the other thing is, professor snyder talks about the inliamentary vote by voting the new government. ill, he must know that was -- think it was unanimous, something like 253-0, which really sort of nostalgic feel it back up the votes i used to count in the soviet union. there's something smelly here. people should realize that it is arey, but russian interests paranoid here and if the president thinks he can face down putin on this issue, he is in for a sorry miss calculation. >> i guess the question is, where this is headed now? secretary of state john kerry on sunday strongly condemned russia's actions in ukraine and
8:44 am
threatened punitive political and economic measures by the international community. >> it is really 19th-century behavior in the 21st century and there's no way to start with this,f russia persist in the g8 countries are going to assemble in sochi. that is a starter. but there's much more than that. russia has major investment and trade needs and desires. i think there's a unified view by all of the foreign ministers i spoke with yesterday, all of the g8 and more, that they are simply going to isolate russia, that they're not quite to engage with russia in the normal business as usual manner. russia is inviting on the international stage. there could even be ultimately asset freezes, visa bans. or could be disruption of any of the normal trade routine. there could be business drawbacks on investment in the
8:45 am
country. the ruble is already going down and feeling the impact in this. >> that was secretary of state john kerry on "meet the press." professor snyder, where do you see this headed and the response of putin to perhaps the possibility that they won't go to sochi, that russia could be thrown out of the g8? predict very hard to political systems that are tearing ease. i will point out a couple of things. the first of these is that every step that russia has taken thus far in ukraine has turned out to be a miscalculation that is turned against it. the calculation that if you paid $15 million and then ask your ukrainian ally to a pressing kill people, that did not turn out the way russians expected it. that is because ukrainians resisted. i take it the goal of
8:46 am
intervening in crimea was to show the world how stable and chaotic it is. that is not working. the ukrainians have accepted this with remarkable calm and asked for help, declared quite understandably its legitimacy. now you see more pro-government and more pro-ukrainian protest all around the country by everyone, which is understandable. i think jim was count putin -- i think putin was counting on new love the pictures for the television counting onn was the bloody pictures for the television cameras. russia keeps putting himself forward and forward into situations that putin has not anticipated and then finds himself doing things that are probably even worse than he planned.
8:47 am
where this is going for russia is not good. whether or not the western states impose sanctions, it will be a disaster for the russian economy. it is very possible that russians are going to be denied normal visas and therefore travel around europe -- it is very likely, indeed, the russian elite will feel a hit with freezing of account things like this. putin will try to argue this confirms his own view that russia is all alone in the kind of superior national civilization facing the world conspiracy which depends upon the mood and depends upon the audience other made up of nazis or gays can't international response won't try to confirm that ideology. in the long run, this is not something which must russians i think we'll see as sensible. even most russian strategists were same things i'm saying now, that it did not make sense to use military force in ukraine. when the consequences of this go beyond immediate exuberance of
8:48 am
this temporary victory, when the consequence of this begin to reach russian population, i think putin will have a problem. i would just repeat everything he has done in this crisis thus far has had the opposite consequence of what he himself has intended. "the new yorkn, times" reporting angela merkel of germany spoke to president obama after she spoke to putin and reports of that call she said she was not sure he was in touch with reality. she's talking about putin here. she referred to him as in a netherworld. world.nother if you could respond to what professor snyder said and where this is headed, could we see a new cold war. >> well, a lot of people looking on what is happening in ukraine wereow the eu and the imf trying to wean the ukraine, taking advantage of its basketcase economy, he a lot of
8:49 am
people remember the saying about the forces of the united states "wall street bloodsuckers." they know what happening greece. they know what happened in many other parts of western europe. and whether the ukrainians, when they come to their senses, really think that the harsh measures that yats has artie threatened to reduce threats the rest interest. that is a big question for me. the rest of it, it seems to me we need to realize, number one, the russians hold high cards here. not only military cards, but western europe is still largely -- naturaln gas from gas from russia that goes from ukraine and russia has lots of leverage. is notestern europe
8:50 am
devoted to the united states the way it used to be. was said yesterday. they had the nsa scandal. there's been permanent damage done to the transatlantic relationship. i now think we're going to have a very willing coalition of the willing to impose economic sanctions against the u.s. -- against russia. the last thing i'll say is, when these kinds of things happen, in the old days, we used to get the stakeholders around the table, ok? it has got to be putin and obama -- pasthead of ukraine and present -- and the stakeholders in the immediate vicinity. we should be of the work is kind of things out. that seems to have been just washed away from the considerations of politicians. once that is done, once you ,emove the neocons like kerry
8:51 am
who almost got us into a war with syria and putin build a sound, what -- once you get the bureaucrats out of the picture, then you have a chance to sit down and say, ok, what are the real interest here? do we really want an ackerman is relationship because of ukraine? let's work things out. western ukraine, eastern ukraine. before we can work this kind of thing out, let's do it again. >> i want to thank you both for being with us. we will continue to follow this issue. analystvern, former cia , daily brief president george h.w. bush and an analyst of russian policy for the first decade of his 27 year career with the cia. man i want to thank professor timothy snyder, author of, "bloodlands: europe between hitler and stalin." we will link to your latest piece called, "ukraine: the haze
8:52 am
of propaganda." back, we go to washington, d.c., major protest against the keystone xl pipeline outside the white house with more than 400 people arrested. we will find out who, stay with us. ♪ [music break]
8:53 am
>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. 398 opponents of the keystone xl pipeline were arrested sunday in front of the white house. it could be the largest youth sit in on the environment in a generation. students from over 80 colleges rallied at georgetown university then marched to the white house wearing mock hazmat suits and holding banners with slogans like "keep your oil out of my soil." unfurled aers then black tarp and about 50 people lay down on the sidewalk creating a human oil spill. several hundred protesters
8:54 am
locked themselves to the white house fence after being arrested by security. here are some of the voices from the protest. >> hundreds of young people all came here from all over the country, 42 states, to show president obama that keystone is not ok, it is not in our interest and we need to reject the pipeline. >> we're here to president obama and secretary john kerry that the keystone xl is not a good move. >> there are thousands of young people marching to the white house to risk arrest to demand the president obama say no to keystone xl. >> this is the most important issue we are facing. >> we have been arrested. forth and you see people come to you and tell you the president you said, it has a huge impact. set, it has aou
8:55 am
huge impact. >> some of the voices from this weekend's keystone xl demonstration washington, d.c. president obama is expected to issue decisions and execute , whichon the pipeline would transport 83,000 barrels of crude oil every day from alberta's oil sands to refineries on u.s. gulf coast. we go to one of those who were arrested. dierdre shelly, welcome to democracy now! why did you get arrested yesterday? i livet arrested because in washington, d.c.. payd the financial means to for the citation. i felt a responsibility to be and supporty peers of communities who live along the pipeline who maybe could not come to d.c., had to work where could not afford to get here. they're the ones you're going to be impacted the most. i really felt responsible and
8:56 am
like i had to be there. >> into those who say this is a matter of jobs, building the pipeline, making its way across the country, your response? >> even obama has admitted the jobs that are purported are temporary and very few. there's no reason those jobs have to be in dirty and expensive oil. this isn't an issue. ,merica is ready for clean green economy and we need to start somewhere. the starting place is saying no to this dirty pipeline. >> can you talk about the student divestment movement on campus? >> yes. it has spread to over 400 universities, an international movement now. it is about getting our universities and institutions we belong to to remove their endowments from withholdings in
8:57 am
the fossil fuel industry. to profitg for anyone from climate change and that is exactly what our universities are doing. >> how is it being organized? how are you pressuring your school, for example? 15, 16campaign is around months old so we've had a lot of time to work different angles. we have used faculty. we have built a lot of student pressure and student power. more and more we're getting closer and closer to our board of trustees which are our target. just two weeks ago they met and we greeted them at 7:15 in the morning with over 80 students to say hello to them. that is a tactic a lot of schools have used across the country.
8:58 am
there is a lot of -- >> what's schools have divested? >> it mostly has been or only has been colleges so far. of the atlantic, unity, hamsher, a few other small schools. we are waiting for the first university to divest. >> dierdre shelly, thank you for being with us. at american university who was active in the climate divestment campaign, participated in the weekends protest, got arrested outside the white house. protest in the keystone xl pipeline. that does it for the show. next tuesday, i will be in western massachusetts along with our senior producer mike burke. you can go to our website as we will be speaking at 7:00. on thursday, i will be in flagstaff, arizona. on friday, in santa fe. on saturday, march 15, i will be
8:59 am
in denver, colorado. you can go to our website and it will be in st. louis, missouri. go to our website at check out the details.
9:00 am
[captioning made possible by california farm bureau federation] >> coming up on "california country," learn how one woman is soaring with a sour fruit. >> they make everything taste a meyer lemon in tastes better because it has a meyer lemon in it. >> then it's a delta favorite. learn why these spears are so special and why they'll have you singing for your supper. >> [singing in italian] >> then it's time to stop and smell and eat the roses at this unique farm. it's all ahead,

299 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on